Johnnie To

The ongoing economic crisis already has inspired its share of cinematic forays: the documentary indictment"Inside Job,"for instance, and the dramas"Margin Call"and"The Company Men,"which consider the meltdown from the perspectives, respectively, of the perpetrators and the downsized. But no movie on the subject has combined populist outrage, social critique and entertainment value with as much flair as Hong Kong director Johnnie To's "Life Without Principle" (2011), new to DVD andBlu-ray from Indomina Releasing.

An East Coast autograph broker said Tuesday that Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel was paid $7,500 for signing about 300 mini- and full-sized helmets on Jan. 11-12 while he was attending an event in Connecticut, ESPN reported. The broker played two cellphone videos for ESPN showing Manziel signing white Texas A&M helmets and footballs laid out on a bed in a hotel room. The video does not show Manziel accepting any money. The broker said the room was at the Omni in New Haven during the Walter Camp Football Foundation event.

Johnny Mountain, the veteran weatherman with one of the most recognizable faces -- and names -- in local TV news, is retiring from KCBS Channel 2, officials are expected to announce Monday. Suzanne Rico, the station's early-morning co-anchor, is also leaving. The departure of Mountain, 65, ends his 32-year stint in local television. He had spent 27 years at KABC Channel 7 before joining KCBS in May 2005. "I have been blessed to have had such a wonderful run on Los Angeles television," Mountain said in a statement.

Let's end the argument over whether Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel has the right to act like any other college student who also happens to have won the Heisman Trophy as a freshman. Of course he does. Johnny got into a bar fight and was caught with a fake ID. (Welcome to a large club.) Johnny sent a tweet saying he couldn't wait to get out of College Station. (Have you ever been there?) He jetted around the country with Daddy's money to crash parties from Denver to Dover.

January 25, 2001 | CLAUDE GOLDENBERG, Claude Goldenberg, associate dean of the College of Education at Cal State Long Beach, was a participant in the reading round table held with President Bush in the White House on Monday

This is a critical time in our country's efforts to extend the educational franchise. The initiatives announced by President Bush this week signal his administration's interest in putting matters educational, especially as they pertain to reading, at the top of the national agenda. It is no accident that on his first workday as president, Bush and his wife, a former teacher and librarian, convened a meeting of literacy researchers and educators at the White House.

Johnny Cash will follow his longtime pal Waylon Jennings and undergo heart surgery Monday, his sister and manager said today. "John had no chest pains. He was just experiencing a few problems and went in for some tests," said Reba Hancock. "What they found was what they think might be some blockage." Jennings, a longtime Cash friend and collaborator, underwent triple-bypass surgery earlier this week at Baptist Hospital, where Cash will have his operation.

Johnny Depp will launch a publishing imprint with Harper, a division of HarperCollins, called Infinitum Nihil. That's the same as his production company, which has had a hand in the films "The Rum Diary" (adapted from the novel by Hunter S. Thompson), "Hugo" (adapted from the children's book by Brian Selznick), and "Dark Shadows" and "The Lone Ranger," both film remakes of old television shows. Since graduating from "21 Jump Street," Depp has chosen roles that are a mixture of pop culture and literary adaptations.

I'm at Coachella this weekend, where maybe I'll try to do the story-song combo in reverse order: hear a song, and try to think of a story that fits it. My mind is already full of possibilities. For the Stone Roses' "I Wanna Be Adored" (probably my all-time favorite song title), just about anything involving a Hollywood actor would work, no? I'll keep you posted on Twitter. In these roundups of the week gone by, I'm offering the first paragraphs of each Column One--maybe they'll buy your eye and you can settle in for a good weekend read.

An East Coast autograph broker said Tuesday that Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel was paid $7,500 for signing about 300 mini- and full-sized helmets on Jan. 11-12 while he was attending an event in Connecticut, ESPN reported. The broker played two cellphone videos for ESPN showing Manziel signing white Texas A&M helmets and footballs laid out on a bed in a hotel room. The video does not show Manziel accepting any money. The broker said the room was at the Omni in New Haven during the Walter Camp Football Foundation event.

September 28, 1999 | GREG HERNANDEZ, Greg Hernandez covers the restaurant industry for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5989 and at greg.hernandez@latimes.com

Johnny Rockets is getting set to sail on the high seas next month. The Irvine-based chain has partnered with Royal Caribbean International to open a 259-seat burger-malt shop aboard a new cruise ship called Voyager of the Seas. The 1940s-style restaurant will be in the ship's pool deck area and will feature memorabilia, servers who dance and sing, and tabletop jukeboxes. "It's a very exciting opportunity," said Larry Anderson, vice president of Johnny Rockets' international division.

An explosion, a drug overdose, a car wreck, an undercover sting. All happen in such quick succession in the crime thriller "Drug War," the sensation is like being dropped into the middle of something much larger than random villainy. That is exactly what prolific Hong Kong director Johnnie To intended. The filmmaker treats "Drug War" like one of those high-profile cases that accidentally falls into law enforcement's lap. The film begins in Jinhai, a city in the southwest Chinese province of Guizhou and makes its way to one of the ports that a major drug cartel is considering for its export trade.

I'm at Coachella this weekend, where maybe I'll try to do the story-song combo in reverse order: hear a song, and try to think of a story that fits it. My mind is already full of possibilities. For the Stone Roses' "I Wanna Be Adored" (probably my all-time favorite song title), just about anything involving a Hollywood actor would work, no? I'll keep you posted on Twitter. In these roundups of the week gone by, I'm offering the first paragraphs of each Column One--maybe they'll buy your eye and you can settle in for a good weekend read.

Johnny Depp will launch a publishing imprint with Harper, a division of HarperCollins, called Infinitum Nihil. That's the same as his production company, which has had a hand in the films "The Rum Diary" (adapted from the novel by Hunter S. Thompson), "Hugo" (adapted from the children's book by Brian Selznick), and "Dark Shadows" and "The Lone Ranger," both film remakes of old television shows. Since graduating from "21 Jump Street," Depp has chosen roles that are a mixture of pop culture and literary adaptations.

The ongoing economic crisis already has inspired its share of cinematic forays: the documentary indictment"Inside Job,"for instance, and the dramas"Margin Call"and"The Company Men,"which consider the meltdown from the perspectives, respectively, of the perpetrators and the downsized. But no movie on the subject has combined populist outrage, social critique and entertainment value with as much flair as Hong Kong director Johnnie To's "Life Without Principle" (2011), new to DVD andBlu-ray from Indomina Releasing.

Jim Marshall, celebrated in music circles for his iconic, attitude-laced images of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, the Rolling Stones and other '60s rock luminaries as well as equally revered portraits of Johnny Cash, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and myriad folk, country, jazz and blues artists, died Wednesday in New York City. He was 74. Marshall apparently died in his sleep while on a promotional tour for "Match Prints," a new collection of similar shots taken across the decades by Marshall and Timothy White, a longtime devotee who referred to his mentor as "royalty in my line of work."

Johnny Mountain, the veteran weatherman with one of the most recognizable faces -- and names -- in local TV news, is retiring from KCBS Channel 2, officials are expected to announce Monday. Suzanne Rico, the station's early-morning co-anchor, is also leaving. The departure of Mountain, 65, ends his 32-year stint in local television. He had spent 27 years at KABC Channel 7 before joining KCBS in May 2005. "I have been blessed to have had such a wonderful run on Los Angeles television," Mountain said in a statement.

In Hong Kong, he is one of the most respected action directors, an inheritor of John Woo's mantle, known for wild roller-coast rides of violence. In person, Johnnie To is a staid, somewhat heavyset man with wire-rimmed glasses, and neatly dressed in a light blue shirt, dark blue blazer and khaki slacks.

Let's end the argument over whether Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel has the right to act like any other college student who also happens to have won the Heisman Trophy as a freshman. Of course he does. Johnny got into a bar fight and was caught with a fake ID. (Welcome to a large club.) Johnny sent a tweet saying he couldn't wait to get out of College Station. (Have you ever been there?) He jetted around the country with Daddy's money to crash parties from Denver to Dover.

NEW YORK -- Even though we tend to assign fixed identities to the directors from Hollywood's golden age, the résumés of filmmakers such as Ford, Hawks, Cukor and Wyler actually cover a range of movies. Forty-six films into a nearly 30-year career, Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To is one of the few directors whose career shows that kind of versatility.

A 1960s western in spirit, director Johnnie To's "Exiled" is set in 1998 Macao on the brink of its hand-over from Portuguese to Chinese rule. The environment creates a sense of quiet desperation for the criminal element looking to make a last big score before the colonial era comes to a close. Wo (Nick Cheung) is a gangster trying to go straight after his failed assassination attempt against crime lord Boss Fay (Simon Yam).